Contents Volume 2, Number 6, December, 2000 Tsunami Program News ton, USCG; Vasily Titov, NOAA; Kerre Martineau, Alaska Summary Report of the Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Steering Dept. of Military & Veterans Affairs; Marie Eble, NOAA; Group Meeting, May 10-11, 2000 ......................................... 1 Costas Synolakis, USC; Jean Newman, NOAA; Ted Bueh- Tsunami Inundation Mapping, May 2000 Progress Report .... 6 ner, WCM Seattle; Jana Goldman, NOAA/OAR Public CREST Status Report –October 23, 2000 ............................. 8 Affairs Tsunamis in the News: Public Affairs Activities and Media Coverage ................................................................. 9 Overview TsuInfo Program: Status and Year 2000 Accomplishments... 12 Departments Dr. Bernard presented the introductory remarks and Tsunami News........................................................................ 10 welcomed everyone to the Pacific Marine Environmental Websites of Distinction .......................................................... 15 Laboratory. All attendees introduced themselves. The cur- Video Reservations ................................................................ 17 rent budget status for the National Tsunami Hazard Mitiga- New Tsunami Mitigation Materials ....................................... 18 tion Program was discussed. Available funds from the FY Selected Tables of Contents ................................................... 19 2000 budget are $2,028,000. Inundation Mapping: TIME Book Review ......................................................................... 21 will receive $176,340 and the states of Alaska, California, Directories ............................................................................. 22 and Hawaii will divide equally $176,340. Warning Guid- Infrequently Asked Questions................................................ 24 Special Features ance Upgrades: Seismic upgrades will receive $705,360 to Tsunami--Nature's Most Spectacular Event, by Gene install 26 sites and DART will receive $617,190 to maintain Woodwick .......................................................................... 13 2 buoys and install 1 new buoy. Mitigation efforts will Holiday Gift Ideas .................................................................. 21 receive $352,680 overall with the states equally dividing Selected Index, TsuInfo Alert, v. 2 ......................................... 23 $291,000. New developments will be discussed concerning landslide enhanced tsunami maps for southern California, TSUNAMI PROGRAM NEWS the East coast tsunami concern, and the next five years of Phase II of the Program. Summary Report of the Tsunami Hazard Mitigation The Program is not included as a line item in the NOAA Steering Group Meeting FY 2001 Budget although supported by Department of May 10-11, 2000, Seattle, Washington Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tsunami-hazard/may00_summary_report.html Administration (NOAA); the Program was cut from the Presidential budget by the Office of Management and Attendees Budget. Steering Group: Eddie Bernard, NOAA; Lori Dengler, Action item: States were requested to send letters of State of California; Richard Przywarty, NOAA; Brian support for the program for the FY 2001 budget to Congres- Yanagi, State of Hawaii; Richard Hagemeyer, NOAA; sional members in the next two weeks. Action: All states. Laura Kong, State of Hawaii; Craig Weaver, USGS; George Crawford, State of Washington; Carl Cook, FEMA ; Timo- thy Walsh, State of Washington; Scott Simmons, State of Review of action items from the previous meeting: Alaska; Mark Darienzo, State of Oregon; Roger Hansen, - Best Cell Size to use in Inundation Maps (requested by all) State of Alaska ; George Priest, State of Oregon; Richard Action: TIME Center to provide some numerical Eisner, State of California modeling guidance to Steering Group members. Guests : Steve Hammond, NOAA; Charles McCreery, Closed: Covered under Inundation Mapping section NOAA/PTWC; Robert Kamphaus, NOAA; Tom Sokolow- below. ski, NOAA/WC/ATWC; Frank Gonzalez, NOAA; David - States requested Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) version of TsuInfo Oppenheimer, USGS; Chris Fox, NOAA; Michael Hornick, Alert Newsletters be available on the web FEMA Region IX; Hal Mofjeld, NOAA; Lt Alan Yelving- Action: Connie Manson (continued, p. 3) TsuInfo Alert is published bi-monthly by the Washington Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Earth Resources. This publication is free upon request and is available in print (by surface mail), electronically (by e-mail), and at http://www.wa.gov/dnr/htdocs/ger/tsunami.htm TsuInfo Alert and the TsuInfo document delivery program are made possible by a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency via the Washington Military Department, Division of Emergency Management. Participants in the TsuInfo program can request copies of reports listed in this issue from: Library Washington Department of Natural Resources Division of Geology and Earth Resources P.O. Box 47007 Olympia, WA 98504-7007 ph: 360/902-1472 or 360/902-1473 fax: 360/902-1785 e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] prepared by Connie J. Manson, Senior Library Information Specialist and Lee Walkling, Library Information Specialist 2 TsuInfo Alert, v. 2, no. 6, December, 2000 (continued from p. 1) Weather Radio. NOAA Weather Radio is a major way to - Steering Group request for an article on the multi-state reach the target audience in a timely manner with a tsunami partnership for the TsuInfo Alert Newsletter watch/warning message. The most recent NOAA Weather Action: Bernard, Eisner, Dengler Radio transmitter has just become operational in test mode Closed: Article appeared in January-February 2000 on Mt. Octopus. This transmitter bridges the gaps in cover- edition of the newsletter age caused by the terrain on the Washington coast. This - Mitigation Subcommittee agreed to revisit the issue of station also provides Emergency Alert System reception to how best to get tsunami warning information to end users Forks, Washington, broadcasters. As soon as all licensing Action: Mitigation Subcommittee and leasing agreements are complete, the station will be Open: See Mitigation Action Item on MOA fully operational. Funding for this project was provided by - Draft of Tsunami Warning Systems: Guidance for State the state tsunami warning group. and Local Officials A draft of the warning system guidance document was Develop NOAA/State Coordination and Technical distributed to the Steering Group members for review in Support April. Action: Mark Darienzo/Local Warning Subcommittee The full windows version of the Historical Tsunami Open Data Base for the U.S. is almost complete. Work has begun - Public Affairs on a beta version of the HTDB for the Caribbean. Requested to put generic media kit on the web page Closed Improve Seismic Networks - Divide list of tsunami videos by public/non-public All new stations will be installed by 2001. Delays have domains on the web page. been caused by weather and equipment problems (slow to Closed arrive or defective) as well as an underestimation of the manpower needed to install the new stations. The dedicated Project Impact Presentation 128Kbps circuit from HVO to PTWC is now operational Carl Cook, FEMA, made a presentation to the group on after many months of effort. This circuit allows PTWC to Project Impact. With Project Impact--Building Disaster have access to continuous seismic waveforms for all Resistant Communities, FEMA is changing the way Ameri- CREST stations installed at HVO as well as most analog ca deals with disasters. Project Impact helps communities channels. The new Quake Data Distribution System protect themselves from the devastating effects of natural (QDDS) was discussed. This new system is an on-line real- disasters by taking actions that dramatically reduce disrup- time reporting system. QDDS is designed as a hub and leaf tion and loss. Project Impact is basing its work and plan- system with two hubs, one in Menlo Park, California, and ning on three simple principles: preventive actions must be the other in Reston, Virginia. Much discussion ensued on decided at the local level; private sector participation is how to word the messages that would go out with tsunami vital; and long-term efforts and investments in prevention warnings and on how to get the quake information down to measures are essential. FEMA would like to have an opera- the city level. Discussion also focused on determining the ting plan for use in the aftermath of a tsunami event. The best method for dissemination of quake information and on NSW helps to get on-site assessment after disasters. what information (on quakes below magnitude 6.5) states Action item: There was considerable discussion on how need. to confirm the availability of resources after a disastrous Action item: Develop state requirements for earthquakes event. The group formed an ad hoc committee to formalize below magnitude 6.5. the next steps. This committee will consist of: Richard Action: Lori Dengler. Przywarty, Frank Gonzalez, Eddie Bernard, George Priest, and Costas Synolakis. Deploy Tsunami Detection Buoys Action: Richard Przywarty, Frank Gonzalez, Eddie Ber- The DART test mooring (D123) was recovered off the nard, George Priest, and Costas Synolakis coast of Monterey, California in February 2000. DART mooring D130 was deployed on March 21, 2000. To date, Underwater Landslides Presentation D130's data return rate has been